Archive: North Korea video shows Washington under attack

In 2013, North Korea produced this video showing the United States under
attack, with the White House and the US Capitol literally in the crosshairs.

8:30AM GMT 22 Dec 2014

This article first appeared on March 19, 2013. It has been republished amid warnings from North Korea of strikes against the White House, Pentagon and "the whole US mainland, that cesspool of terrorism".

The four-minute video titled "Firestorms will rain on the Headquarters of War" was posted Monday on the YouTube channel ofNorth Korea's official website, Uriminzokkiri, which distributes news and propaganda from the state media.

The first two minutes used still photos of US fighter jets, B-52 bombers and aircraft carriers to portray the United States as a bullying nuclear power intent on bending Pyongyang to its will.

"Second by second, the fuse of a nuclear war is burning," a female narrator warned. It then showed a sniper's crosshairs superimposed over the White House, before switching to animated footage of the dome of the US Capitol building exploding in a fireball. "There is no limit to the range of our strategic rockets," the narrator said.

Angered by UN sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last month, North Korea has threatened the United States with a pre-emptive nuclear strike, as military tensions on the Korean peninsula escalated to their highest level for years.

Although experts say the North is years from being able to fire a nuclear-tipped ballistic mile as far as the US mainland, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel responded Friday with plans to boost West Coast missile defences.

It was the latest in a line of similarly-themed videos posted to the Uriminzokkiri channel. An offering early last month showed New York in flames after an apparent missile attack, and another two weeks later depicted US soldiers and President Barack Obama burning in the flames of a nuclear blast.